CHICAGO — Chicago Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz in an interview Wednesday with NBC Sports Chicago’s David Kaplan said his father, Chairman Rocky Wirtz, “unfortunately went off track there” during last week’s town hall.
Rocky Wirtz went on a tirade when asked about what policy changes will be made after the team settled a negligence lawsuit by former player Kyle Beach, who accused the Blackhawks of suppressing his sexual assault allegation against former video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010.
Danny Wirtz also mentioned a few times his father is on board with the new values the Hawks say they’ll live by — zero tolerance for abuse of any kind, and that hockey’s antiquated, unspoken rule of players suffering in silence will no longer be encouraged, even if tacitly.
“Rocky and I spoke and he reiterated everything he shared (in an apology letter) that night, regretting the outburst and I think mostly regretting the overshadowing of the work we are doing,” Danny Wirtz told Kaplan. “But I know that our leadership team is committed to doing the right things, to rebuilding this culture here at the Blackhawks and I know that Rocky is 100 percent in our corner in support of that too.”
With all due respect, that just won’t cut it.
Danny Wirtz can say what his father supports now, but we can no longer take his word for it.
When Rocky Wirtz insisted during the Jenner & Block briefing that “neither myself nor Danny knew anything about (Beach’s) allegations until we received word that a lawsuit was being filed,” and then said nothing more on the subject for months, many observers gave him the benefit of the doubt.
When Danny Wirtz emphasized the Hawks’ “commitment to doing the right thing, even if it isn’t easy,” we assumed that included the Hawks talking freely about making amends for past wrongs, even if it isn’t easy.
When interim general manager Kyle Davidson — placed in that role because Jenner & Block found Stan Bowman along with other ousted senior managers were culpable in 2010 — said that “transparency is important to me, to our team, to our ownership and our fans,” we assumed that Rocky Wirtz counted among that number.
We can no longer assume anything when it comes to Wirtz, especially if it’s contrition carefully crafted in a press release.
We had plenty of heartfelt sentiment about values, trust and high standards from the Hawks in various team statements over the last few months, which is what makes Wirtz’s meltdown last week such a head-spinner.
His defiant snipes that workplace reforms are “none of your business” were a startling contradiction to the team’s promise they were trying to regain the public’s trust.
Danny Wirtz told Kaplan the Hawks weren’t the same team, but he said something similar in October.
“The Blackhawks are a very different organization than we were in 2010. And I’m not talking about wins and losses,” he said Oct. 26.
And to Kaplan on Wednesday: “I would reiterate that we are a different organization ... continuing to earn that trust that fans can believe in. That’s done not just for what I say here and what we say, but what we do.”
Wirtz later added: “Of course we want to win — and winning the Stanley Cup is frankly the ultimate goal, always — but I think if we’ve learned anything it’s how we win. Win with a level of integrity, win with a winning culture, and be the kind of company and organization people want to work for, our fans want to be part of and our partners to partner on.”
“So it’s more than just win and losses?” Kaplan asked.
“Absolutely is,” Wirtz said.
We need to hear if Rocky Wirtz feels that way. In his words. After all, Rocky Wirtz was head of the same organization that Jenner & Block found put wins and losses — namely winning the Stanley Cup — ahead of Beach’s welfare in 2010.
Look, this isn’t about dragging Rocky back in front of a camera just to make him engage in some self-flagellation. Fans, parents, partners and the community need to hear that he supports a culture change, acknowledges the team’s past sins, has internalized the trauma from Beach’s perspective and can articulate his new level of understanding.
Hearing is believing.
The words on paper have to match the words out of his mouth.
No more assumptions.
